Time Abundance

Time Abundance

We hear the mantra repeatedly in the financial independence community. It is not about money, it is about time. All that hard work and financial savviness has one main goal in mind. Freedom. Freedom to spend each day doing what we want to do. Yet, I find myself feeling completely outside my range with this concept. Time abundance has never been my problem. Today in half retirement, as even when I was working a full schedule, I never felt like there was a paucity of time.

In fact, the exact opposite. While the years may seem short, the days are long. Longer than I ever expected they would be. It is safe to say that if I stopped working completely, I would have no idea how to fill up all the space.

This is not for lack of trying. I am involved in a million things. But there are tons of seconds in each day.

Early To Rise

How have I felt this time abundance while others claim there is a scarcity? It starts with my internal alarm clock. It goes off at 4:45 am each morning without fail. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t stay in bed any longer.

While this might be annoying to some, it supercharges my day. I get up, exercise, read, complete a little work. By seven in the morning, I feel like I have accomplished more than most people do the whole day. I still have at least 15 more hours to go until needing to sleep again.

Usually I tackle the most difficult tasks first. I not only have a huge amount of energy, there is no one else awake to distract me. Nothing going on on social media. No urgent phone calls or texts.

The easier tasks can be left to later when I am in a more sub optimal state of mind. Even the best of us get a little groggy in the middle of the day.

Optimize

There is also a subtractive quality to time abundance. Not only do we have to spend concerted effort doing that which has value to us, we also have to get rid of that which is a waste of time. There are a million time wasters out there attempting to suck away our energy.

I have done this over the years by slowly getting rid of useless meetings in the work place. Cutting down and eliminating emails as a form of productive communication. Requiring people to text me first before calling.

Optimization. I have spent the last decade slowly optimizing my environment. I simply don’t want to spend time and energy doing things that can be avoided. Anyone who spends hours cleaning out their email in basket on a regular basis knows that they can’t ever get that time back.

I say, eliminate the need.

Hire Out

There is no time abundance trick more powerful than appropriately outsourcing. My wife and I use this technique all the time. For instance, we still have a nanny three days a week. Our kids are 11 and 14. They don’t need her anymore. But we do.

We need her to do the dishes, do the grocery shopping, and fold the laundry. We need her to run the countless errands, and open the door for repairmen when something goes wrong.

The lawn gets mowed without me lifting a finger. The house cleaned. The kids end up in the right place at the right time.

It’s all good. It costs some money, but what better do you have to spend your money on? Is there anything more valuable than time?

Final Thoughts

I find that in most aspects of my life, I have a time abundance. I have created this by rising early, optimizing, and outsourcing. This leaves me plenty of time to work, pursue side projects, enjoy myself, and spend loads of time with my family.

Although I can’t stop the years from passing, I can certainly take control of how I spend each day. There are abundant hours in the day. Abundant minutes in each hour. And countless seconds.

How are you going to use them?